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Bone Shadow
Category:UtGS Player Characters Basic Info Name Bone Shadow Concept Pilgrim Shadow Player Arynne Contact Info AIM Aridawnia E-Mail Aridawnia@aol.com Motivation To make up for my past Exalt Type Solar Caste Night Age 18 Anima A ghostly white lotus; when iconic, the petals slowly turn purple and fall off. History She arrived on their doorstep as a young girl, stumbling and thirsty like a wolf run down by hunters. The priests gave her food and shelter and urged her to stay for as long as she needed to; she was humbly thankful, but she would not tell them her name, saying only, "She is dead." No one has dared to ask Bone Shadow about her true identity again. Appearance Bone Shadow has short, straight, lusterless black hair; fine, straight, black brows; a nose much too small even for her small, three-cornered face; a small, pale mouth that always falls open a trifle over little, pointed white teeth; a figure thin and flat-breasted, rather below the average height. Her slanting, dark-brown eyes, too soft and shadowy to be black, are her one beauty. Apart from her eyes she is neither pretty nor ugly - just insignificant-looking. Few outside the temple have ever seen her true face, though, as she almost always wears an elaborately carved mask of human bone. She is normally clad in a travel-stained white robe edged with violet, and carries a long monk's spade. Attributes Physical (Secondary) Strength 2 Dexterity 4 Stamina 3 Social (Tertiary) Charisma 2 Manipulation 3 Appearance 2 Mental (Primary) Perception 4 Intelligence 3 Wits 4 Abilities DAWN Archery 1 Martial Arts 4 Melee 1 (Polearms +2) ''' War 1 ZENITH '''Integrity 2 Performance 1 Presence 1 Resistance 2 TWILIGHT Lore 2 Occult 5 NIGHT Athletics 2 Awareness 2 Dodge 2 Larceny 5 Stealth 3 ECLIPSE Linguistics 2 Ride 1 Socialize 2 Languages (Native) High Realm (Imperial City) Flametongue Old Realm Backgrounds Level 2 Artifact - Discreet Essence Armor (2 dots) Level 2 Backing - Priests of Endings (1 dot, 1 BP) Level 3 Manse - The Temple of the Violet Lotus (1 dot, 2 BPs) Level 5 Mentor - Silence (3 dots, 6 XP) Artifacts Discreet Essence Armor (2-dot Artifact, orichalcum) Soak 7B/7L, Hardness 3B/3L, Mobility -0, Fatigue -0, Attune 5 This artifact consists of a pair of bracers and a pair of greaves made of orichalcum, but smaller than average and seemingly more ornamental than functional. They are engraved with an elaborate pattern of intertwined water-lilies, and the left bracer is set with a brilliantly iridescent opal. But Bone Shadow is attacked while wearing them, they will reveal their true strength, automatically drawing six motes of Essence from her and expanding into pale golden armor that shimmers faintly in the dark with a soft radiance like that of fireflies. Silence presented Bone Shadow with this armor when she left the temple on her journey. When she protested that it was too precious a gift for her to accept, he said simply that it belonged to her already. Manse The Temple of the Violet Lotus Aspect: Sidereal Rating: 3 In the Shore Lands of An-Teng lies the City of Dead Flowers, widely feared as a haunt for the dead and a habitation for the wicked. Shrines to the Pale Mistress stand on its boundaries in hopes that the death-goddess will stay her hand. Strange creatures writhe in the earth where canals once ran and dark blossoms hang from the broken roofs, thirsting for blood. Just outside the blighted area, on a windy hill, stands the Temple of the Violet Lotus, named for the purple water-lilies that grow in its sacred lake. Local people believe that if a handful of the violet petals are scattered over a person's grave, he will be protected, body and soul, from both the Pale Mistress and the terrors that reside in the nearby Shadowland. The staircase that leads up to the temple's main entrance faces Saturn's most northerly position in the sky. Also, a diagonal formed by the northeast and southwest corners of the building aligns with both the summer solstice sunrise and the winter solstice sunset. From the three narrow, high windows that admit light into the inner sanctum, the priests can see Saturn rising at its northern and southern extremes, as well as the equinox sunset. Here stands an altar to the Maiden of Endings, as well as her cult statue: the goddess is dark in color, robed in purple and four-armed. One arm brandishes a sword, another cradles a sheaf of wheat, a third lifts a blazing torch, and the fourth holds out a lotus. She is mounted on a great black bird; the priests disagree about whether it is a crow or a raiton. The temple itself is a sprawling structure of oddly-aligned corridors, eerily empty rooms and strange mirrors that do not always reflect the face of the person looking into them. Doors swing shut by themselves when no wind is blowing, and unescorted visitors always find themselves back at the entrance hall. Behind the temple is a small graveyard. There are no boundaries, and a family can place a new grave wherever it likes; the graveyard can be identified by the plantings of buckbrush, purple azaleas, foxgloves and irises. The graves are never marked with stones aboveground, but sometimes with a small carved cedar figure, and are often planted with one or more of the flowers mentioned above, which are cared for as long as survivors and descendants wish to keep the memory green. The cremation ground is in a hollow below the graveyard. The large, circular ground is kept clear of all grass and is stamped down and sown with salt yearly by the priests of Endings. Wood may be given and carried to the cremation ground by mourners, but only the priests stay at the cremation. Mourners, including family members, are directed to return home. An old sad song hints of this: I watch the smoke behind the ridge, the smoke rising and the rain falling. The priests who serve in the temple are forbidden to bear arms, but they have become adept at using unconventional weapons - sickles, pickaxes and even the spades with which they bury the dead - and their bare hands. Long meditations on the nature of Life and Death (and frequent communal meals of the seeds of the sacred lotus) have given them sufficient command of their own Essence to learn fighting styles normally practiced only by the Exalted. In addition, the priesthood encourages local God-Blooded and outcaste Dragon-Blooded to join its ranks. Deep in its dusty archives, the Temple of the Violet Lotus holds further wonders. Ancient tablets in the writing of the First Age tell of martial artists who shaped the stuff of dreams or called the night itself to their aid. Game Effects: Manse's rating of 3 x 2 + 3 for the weekly Maintenance of a three-hour rite in honor of the Maiden of Endings each Saturn's Day = 9 Creation Points. The Temple of the Violet Lotus is a Temple Manse to Saturn; its carefully planned architecture also makes it a Divine Observatory. Its extensive collection of texts and magical training rooms grant an extra dot in unarmed fighting (Martial Arts specialty), fighting with polearms (Melee specialty) and dealing with the dead (Occult specialty). The labyrinth of Essence-blurred hallways function as Minor Tricks and Traps. The manse's hearthstone, a Precision of Form Gemstone, forms in the lotus in Saturn's hand. Charms Martial Arts *Image of Death / 2 motes / Scroll of the Monk, p. 92 *Wall-Climbing Technique / 1 mote / Scroll of the Monk, p. 92 *Distracting Finger-Gesture Attack / 2 motes / Scroll of the Monk, p. 92 *Ebon Shadow Form / 5 motes / Scroll of the Monk, p. 92 Occult *Spirit-Detecting Glance / 3 motes / Exalted, p. 221 *Spirit-Cutting Attack / 1 mote / Exalted, p. 221 *Ghost-Eating Technique / 2 motes / Exalted, p. 221 *Spirit-Repelling Diagram / 10 motes / Exalted, p. 221 Larceny *Second Larceny Excellency / 2 motes per success / Exalted, p. 184 *Flawlessly Impenetrable Disguise / 7 motes / Exalted, p. 227 *Vile Anathema Shroud / 5 motes / Manual of Exalted Power: Abyssals, p. 171 *Perfect Mirror / 10 motes, 1 Willpower / Exalted, p. 228 Stealth *Easily Overlooked Presence Method / 3 motes / Exalted, p. 230 *Invisible Statue Spirit / 5 motes / Exalted, p. 230 Equipment Mundane Monk's Spade/Fighting Staff Speed 6, Accuracy +0, Damage +5L, Defense +1, Rate 2, Minimum Strength 2, Cost 2, Tags: 2, R Attack: 4 (Dex) + 1 (Melee) + 2 (Specialty) = 6 dice Speed 6, Accuracy +2, Damage +7B, Defense +2, Rate 2, Minimum Strength 2, Cost - , Tags: 2, R Attack: 4 (Dex) + 1 (Melee) + 2 (Accuracy) = 6 dice 2: Requires both hands to wield R: Can attack mounted targets or those at higher elevation Magical *Discreet Essence Armor Soak 7B/7L, Hardness 3B/3L, Mobility -0, Fatigue -0, Attune 5 *Hearthstone Precision of Form Gemstone Vital Information Willpower 6/6 Virtues Compassion 2/2 Conviction 3/3 Temperance (Primary) 3/3 Valor 2/2 Limit 0/10 Virtue Flaw Ascetic Drive Combat Statistics Defense Values Dodge DV: 5 (8) Parry DV: 4 Mental Dodge DV: 6 Mental Parry DV: 2 Soak Bashing Soak: 10 (6) Lethal Soak: 8 (4) Aggravated Soak: 7 (3) Health -0 [ ] -1 [ ] [ ] -2 [ ] [ ] -4 [ ] [ ] Incapacitated [ ] Dying [ ] [ ] [ ] Essence 3 Personal: 15/15 Peripheral: 32/37 Committed: 5 Other Information Intimacies Gratitude and respect to Silence, loyalty to her order, love and guilt towards her family Merits/Flaws Heirloom (1-point Merit; the monk's spade) Priest (1-point Merit; Bone Shadow is a priest of Saturn) Enemy (3-point Flaw; this is Shatterer of Ways, a Day Caste Abyssal) Known Anathema (2-point Flaw; the Wyld Hunt is actively seeking her and they know she's in the South) Permanent Caste Mark (2-point Flaw; the empty golden ring of the Night Caste is always visible on Bone Shadow's forehead, which is why she always goes masked when not in disguise) Experience 1/50 Bonus Point Expenditure Martial Arts to 4 - 2 points Occult to 5 - 2 points Larceny to 4 - 1 point Resistance to 2 - 1 point Athletics to 2 - 1 point Awareness to 2 - 1 point Dodge to 2 - 1 point Melee Specialty to 2 - 1 point Compassion to 2 - 3 points Backing to 2 - 1 point Manse to 3 - 2 points Mentor to 5 - 4 points Experience Point Expenditure Essence to 3 - 16 points Ghost-Eating Technique - 8 points Vile Anathema Shroud - 8 points Perfect Mirror - 8 points Invisible Statue Spirit - 8 points Integrity to 2 - 1 point